This is a very good question and I have a quick story that made me realize why we often fall short of fulfilling our purpose...

I can recall one day loosing a simple pair of glasses... I looked all over for my glasses at work, at home, in my car, everywhere and still could not locate them.

Then finally after a week I made an announcement at work that I lost a pair of glasses and I really needed to find them so if anyone seen them or if they could help me search for them, I would greatly appreciate it.  I waited another two weeks just knowing that someone else would be the hero and find my glasses for me but still, no luck.

Then one morning while I was getting ready for work, it had to be about a month later.  I was in the bathroom and doing my hair in the mirror and I was talking to God like I always do in the oddest of places... but I was thinking that loosing my glasses was suppose to be a lesson for me and I was trying to figure out what I should have learned from this.  Anyway, after my little conversation I looked down and sitting there on the counter... was my glasses!

My heart just fell to my stomach... Wow!

But now it all made since... that sometimes the answers that we seek is right there in front of our faces all along.  However, many times we fall short of fullfiling our purpose in life because we choose to believe what we want to believe instead of what is truth.  We can't afford to over look anything in life because we could be missing that very thing that makes us whole again.

Something as simple as loosing a pair of eye glasses made me realize this but a powerful lesson it was.

I am 38 and still looking for my career, my passion. I understand that my purpose in life is to Serve and Worship God, for that is why he made me. I am obedient to this purpose in my heart but that is not enough. I need to be obedient to Him and this purpose in all actions and ways.

As far as my career, I believe that I will find it in my passion. I have a wonderful and somewhat lucrative career now but I know that this is not my final stop.

I have been obtaining an education for many years and often wonder why. I often wonder what role my education is going to play in God’s Kingdom. I am working on the dissertation for my Doctor in Education and I often want to quit because I have no idea why I am pursuing this degree and what I am going to do with it. I have endured many tragedies during this program that would cause someone to quit. My husband suffered a heart attack, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, and my father suffered a stroke. All of these tragedies were ‘out of the blue’ because none of them has ever had any medical problems. I wanted to quit so bad…..but something would not let me. I know that God is the reason I am in this and that only HE will reveal to me what to do with it.

I know that you are probably saying “You are saying all of this to say what?”J.  I am saying all of this to let you know that you are not alone. The message and the breakthrough will come…just keep believing. I am!

I think part of the reason we fall short on fulfilling our purpose is quite simply because we have been given the choice of free will. God so divinely created each of us with the ability to make choices.

All the other living organisms weren't given that divine right. A dog has to be a dog, and a fish can not survive without water. But, as his children, we were blessed to be able to shape our lives into whatever we choose it to be.

However, the down side to that is most people can't handle the choices they make and the consequences that come along with those choices. It becomes very easy for one to blame others for their shortcomings.

Bishop TD Jakes came to New Birth a long time ago...when we were still meeting in the Family Life Center and he spoke some words that I'll never forget.  He said, "You can drive off of the road swatting at gnats".   I thought his comparison was clever in that gnats are distractions and we get off course trying to deal with the distractions that life and the enemy often throw our way.  Gnats are annoying as distractions are in life; so much so that you find yourself giving too much of your attention to them and not on your Purpose. Or they distract you from hearing instructions from the Lord on how to proceed.  And finally gnats are small.  Even though the distractions are super annoying and bothersome, they are miniscule in comparison to our purpose.

Distractions are just one problem that could hinder progress toward fulfilling our purpose.  Bishop Jakes just made such a great analogy that I've never forgotten it.

We don't give God enough time to move. Instead of being on Gods time we are on our own. I have had this problem and I still deal with it at times. So this allow us to move ahead of God and this allow us to disrupt the plans he as already for us. I have learned if and when you get back in alliniment with God your purpose will be forfilled. 

As a person, I think we fall short in fulfilling our purpose b/c we lose sight of what's important. We get so caught up in what other people's opinion of what we should be doing, or what we should have that we forget the original plan. Sometimes you get so lost and confused that by then end of the journey that you don't know what the purpose was to begin with.